June 7, 2001
The three-ring circus masquerading as the U.S. Senate now has everything. It has Democratic snake charmers, it even has Republican contortionists and now it has a duly elected leopard that has changed its spots: James Jeffords.
I don’t know how Vermont does things, but it would appear that Jeffords claimed to be a lifetime Republican when he ran for office, was probably endorsed by the Republican state committee and was elected by his Republican constituency to represent them in the Senate — as a Republican.
When I was growing up, they taught me that people who did such underhanded skullduggery were called turncoats, liars, traitors, Benedict Arnolds or worse. Frankly, I think Jeffords deserves this year’s Pearl Harbor Back-Stabbing Award for an Outstanding Performance in a Continuing Election Charade.
To my horror, in Jeffords’ “explanation,” this miscreant used words such as “my own conscience and principles,” neither of which he appears to have in any abundance, not to mention honesty, integrity or self-respect.
JACK O’NEIL
Sewickley